1. Technical Field
The technical field relates generally to the field of video poker-type electronic games and a poker table surface for playing an auxiliary game to a poker card table or video poker game and, more particularly, to a game betting position whereby a poker player may place a bet related to the quality of a poker hand that the player will be dealt such as, for example, no pair, various pairs (for example, a pair of jacks through aces), two pair, three of a kind and so on, prior to a player of the auxiliary game receiving or a video poker apparatus displaying the player's poker hand in either a video poker game or a poker card table game.
2. Background
Auxiliary games are known for playing a known card game such as blackjack. Cranford, U.S. Pat. No. 7,762,879 describes an electronic blackjack game apparatus and a blackjack game called “Bet the House Blackjack.” An auxiliary game permits a player to place a bet on what the dealer's hand will be, as well as to place bets on a hand dealt by the dealer (or issued by the gaming apparatus) to the player. In particular, the player may bet that the dealer, for example, will deal himself a seven card hand which would pay, for example, 6500 to 1 odds and thus reap for the player a $6500 pay-off for a one dollar bet. If the dealer deals himself an all red hand, the pay-off to a player playing the auxiliary “Bet the House Blackjack” game would be about 5 to 1 or the player would receive $5.00 for a one dollar bet.
The present applicant has been issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,422, which also describes a variation on a blackjack card game and apparatus. In this variation, the banker and the player are each dealt one card, and the player makes an initial wager limited at least by the amount placed in the bank by the banker. Once a second card is dealt to each, the player may stand on their hand or take another card. The banker may then accept cards until a winner is determined by conventional blackjack rules.
Schultz in U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,120 describes an improved video poker variation regarding draw poker where the player makes an initial commitment as to the number of draw cards. Payoff tables may vary dependent on the number of draw cards selected.
Netley et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,618 describes a video poker game method and apparatus which permits a player to wager an amount of winnings from a first game of poker on a second game of poker, thereby, increasing the possible pay-out from playing both games (or tiers) of a video poker game, if the player wins both games in sequence.
Yoseloff, U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,613 describes a poker game that may be played as either a video poker game or a conventional poker card game whereby a player dealt one poker hand may play the poker hand in two ways, for example, as a conventional draw game with no wild cards and a less conventional game with wild cards such as deuces wild. The player may be required to pick one way of playing over the other.
Moody, U.S. Pat. No. 7,404,762 describes an electronic video poker game allowing a player to play more than one hand at once where the hands are the same. Moreover, a player may play each hand differently and receive a pay-off based on a wager on each hand (if the resulting card hand is deserving of a pay-off according to standard odds).
While there are many known variations of poker table card games and of video poker games and means for adapting known table card games such that they may be played on video electronic gaming apparatus, there remains a need in the art to further improve on variations of known poker table card games and video poker games. It is also desirable to provide a player with greater enjoyment and opportunities as well as greater potential profit for the video poker apparatus owner of the “house” in a poker card game.